Not So Simple
by Shadougelover14
Summary: His job was NOT as simple as it seemed...nor was his life...


Contrary to popular belief, Surge's job was _not _as simple or pointless as everyone seemed to think it was. There was **nothing **simple or pointless about what he did, especially considering that without him the arcade wouldn't even function properly. If he wasn't here, every game from _Pac-Man _to the Whack-A-Mole would short our from too many plugs in the outlets, or be exposed to the dangers of power outages during storms or the threats of any kind of virus.

Some characters, such Felix, saw that, and were courteous to him during his security checks, but the rest didn't seem to get that and only saw him and his 'random' checks as minor annoyances.

When there was trouble though? Oh, _then _they took notice of his duties, or lack thereof, in their minds. Everyone was quick to call him out for the Turbo incident.

_'Why didn't you stop him, oh mighty Surge Protector?' _they'd asked.

It's not like he hadn't _tried _to stop the wayward racer, he HAD! But there was only so much he could do against a race car going ninety or over with a driver dead set on getting through. Turbo had somehow managed to bypass every barrier he'd thrown up; there'd been no stopping him.

It took years for the arcade to get past the incident, and it had been hard not only for the two twins that had managed to escape _Turbotime_ before its unplugging, but for Surge as well. Some found it difficult to trust him again after failing to stop Turbo. It seemed only Felix had been the one to not blame him partly for the incident.

And then the Sugar Rush crisis happened, and it started all over. Why hadn't he noticed Turbo sneaking in in the first place? How had he not realized someone messed with the game's coding? How had he missed Turbo surviving _Roadblasters_?

He didn't need anyone else asking him these questions; he'd asked himself enough times to count for every character in the arcade. For the public and himself, he still had no answer.

Because of this, attitudes toward him had shifted. There were some characters, those from more recent games, who still treated him with the respect he'd normally receive, but those from the older generation that had been present for the Turbo incident, minus Fix-It Felix Jr., were now regarding him with resentment and snarky responses to his questions. It was annoying sure, but he could ignore it. It was mostly just dark glares and sharp tongues; no one dared get physical with him.

At least not until one slow Thursday evening.

He'd just finished a security check with a couple characters heading to _Tappers _when he sensed someone approaching him. He glanced over his clipboard to see it was actually three people approaching, stumbling a bit, and he could already feel an annoyed sigh ready to be released upon recognizing them. They were three racers from the long gone _Roadblasters _that, much like the twins from _Turbotime _that now resided in an unused outlet of the station, had managed to escape their game before the unplugging. He'd had to keep the larger, muscular racers from ganging up on and throttling the shaken twins, or in Ned's case, hysterically sobbing twin. When they'd heard Turbo had actually survived, they were elated at first. No matter what, Turbo was still their leader and like family. Upon hearing what he'd done to Sugar Rush, though, the joy turned to horror, and they'd retreated to their outlet home. That was about a month ago, and Surge still hadn't seen a trace of them.

On the other hand, the trio obviously wasn't thrilled when they heard Turbo had been lurking around under their noses. And of course, they were blaming Surge for not catching on sooner and _allowing _him to nearly ruin another racing game. While Surge knew he was at fault for not noticing the first disturbance in Sugar Rush's coding when Turbo had snuck in, there were literally _hundreds _of disturbances in every game's coding. Afterwards, Turbo had obviously hidden himself in the game well enough to avoid further detection for years, and altered his own coding to make it seem like he was part of the game, and this hadn't set off Surge's alarms. So it wasn't _completely _his fault.

But the racers wouldn't listen, they only saw it one way, _their_ way.

"Names and destination, gentlemen." he announced in a monotone.

Johnny, The leader of their group, dressed in a black and white race suit, smirked. Surge could tell they'd just come from _Tappers._ Splendid...

"Pleeaase, old man, you know us. I get really sick'a your 'random security checks'."

"I get that a lot; destination?"

"Nowhere, really, we were just lookin for you, actually."

Surge let the sigh out, and looked back at the clipboard.

"I'm busy right now, so please move along-"

"Busy with what? Letting _more_ viruses sneak into racing games and wreck everything?"

Surge didn't answer, instead keeping his eyes on the board as he wrote down the trio's names and putting 'loitering' where the destination would normally go.

"Hey," one of the others, the green wearing Ashton, snapped, "We're talkin t'you old man!"

"As I told you, _gentlemen_, I'm busy-"

Ashton and Blitz, the last racer clad in yellow, blocked him on both sides while Johnny approached him head on.

"Well _we _wanna know why you're lettin those lousy twerps stick 'round the station! Why don't you take them out 'fore they infect the arcade like that sorry 'scuse for a racer they used to follow 'round like pups?"

"They aren't a threat to the arcade, now if you'll excuse me-"

Johnny smacked the board out of his hands, and it clattered to the floor. He grabbed the officer's tie and yanked him forward so they were eye to eye. Immediately, he sent a jolt through the racer, and Johnny release him with a hiss. Ashton and Blitz jumped him then, and Johnny was quick to follow. Despite the zaps of electricity he was sending at them, they continued their assault of punching and shouting obscenities. He could hear a few gasps from onlookers, but no one stepped in. He was about to teleport away, which would send a much more powerful jolt through the group, when a voice suddenly yelled out,

"**HEY!" **

Heavy thuds followed, and the trio jumped away from him, causing him to fall to the floor. He looked up at his rescuer, and was surprised to see Ralph. Coming up behind him were Felix, Calhoun, a couple of her soldiers, and shockingly, the twins. All were glaring at the trio of racers.

"You boys got a problem?" Calhoun growled.

They returned the glare, switching it to the twins and Surge momentarily, before Johnny hissed a response.

"No, we were just leaving; boys, let's go."

"That's what I thought," Calhoun said, before glancing at her men behind her, "Kohut, Markowski, make sure these _men_ get wherever they're staying with no trouble."

They saluted her, before marching the trio off.

"Yeah you better run ya lemon drops!" Vanellope yelled, before throwing a hard candy at Johnny. It made contact with the back of his head, and shot a glare back at her.

"I got a head full more where that came from!" she stated.

He glared, but Kohut nudged him with his gun and urged him to keep walking. After watching them go, Felix glanced at the crowd that had started gathering since the confrontation started.

"Okay, folks, nothin' to see here, just move along." he announced with a weak grin.

"Yeah, nice job steppin', ya pussywillows." Calhoun muttered as they dispersed.

They turned back to the others, who were standing by as Surge stood up and fixed his uniform and readjusted his glasses. He bent to get his clipboard, but Vanellope beat him to it, and held it out to him with a small grin. He gave a small nod of thanks as he took it, momentarily glancing at everyone else, before looking back down at the board.

"Um...you okay?" Ralph asked.

"Fine; names and destinations, and are you smuggling any fruit today?"

Ralph sighed as he rolled his eyes, but before he could offer a reply, the twins stepped forward.

"We-We saw them talkin to you and knew things would probably get bad..." Ned stammered.

"So we went to find someone that would help. Ralph was coming out of the Bad-Anon meeting in _Pac-Man_, and we knew he could scare them off, so..." Ted finished.

Surge glanced at them for a moment, then nodded.

"They were all freaked out and everything," Vanellope stated, "Who were those guys anyway?"

"They're from _RoadBlasters_." Felix replied.

"Isn't that the game that...um, you know?"

"That Turbo wrecked? Yeah." Ted muttered.

"So, what was their problem?"

"Oh the usual; their game was ruined thirty years ago and then Sugar Rush nearly gets destroyed by Turbo a month ago, and it's obviously all _my _fault." Surge muttered, putting down the groups' names to avoid having to look at her. He expected _she _was mad too, after all, it was her game that was nearly ruined permanently, all under _his_ watch. The twins looked at the ground uneasily as well.

She frowned, before looking up at him.

"How's any of that your fault?"

"Because obviously any trouble that enters a game is my fault." Surge replied, a bit of irritation evident in his voice. He clicked his pen shut, and turned to zap away.

"Hey, hold it Sparky!"

"I'm very busy, Princess-"

"_President!_"

"President, whatever..."

"I'm not totally sure how he got into my game, but he was obviously really sneaky about it, enough to go under even _your _radar. As for _RoadBlasters_, wasn't he like, driving his car when that happened?"

"Yeah, and he was driving pretty fast too, I think he was doing what, ninety?" Ralph added.

"More like 120." Ted stated.

"Either way, wasn't your fault." Vanellope said.

Surge glanced down at her, then at the others who offered encouraging smiles.

"...Unfortunately it's not that simple."

Vanellope rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Nothing's ever simple with you...look, I don't blame you, okay? As for those pinheads, they just got cotton candy for brains, so what they say doesn't matter."

"Kid's right; and trust me, you do a pretty good job of keeping track of what goes in and out of games. You stop me _every time _I leave or enter a game..." Ralph muttered.

Surge remained silent, and at that moment the twins stepped forward.

"We...heard you sticking up for us...thanks." Ned mumbled.

Surge merely nodded again.

"How come ya didn't just teleport outta there?"

"That would've sent a more powerful current through them, and had the possibility of killing them, which, shockingly, I _don't _want to do."

Ned gave a nod, and fell silent.

"Now then, I'm very busy right now, so-"

"Hang on Sparky, one more thing." Vanellope said, glitching in front of him.

A sigh escaped him as he looked down at her.

"Yes _President _Von Schweetz?"

She grinned, before holding out what looked like a ticket.

"It's a ticket to the roster race tomorrow! Anyone outside my game needs one to get in. I figured you don't do anything too exciting after hours, so I got one for you too! You should come watch, it's really fun! And I invited the twins too!"

Ned and Ted held up their own tickets with grins, and gestured for him to take the slip of paper. Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun were merely watching, though the wrecker had a smug grin on his face.

After a minute, he gave a sigh, and took the ticket.

"On the contrary, I _do _have things to do after hours...but I suppose I can let the system run itself tomorrow evening..."

Vanellope let out a cheer.

"Alright, we're gonna teach you how to have fun, just you wait! See ya tomorrow! Oh, just so we can avoid another check, I'm going _in _to Sugar Rush, okay? Got it? So don't stop me when I get there!"

She made a bee line for Sugar Rush, leaving the rest of her group behind. Surge stared after her for a moment, before a small smile formed.

"Whoa, you _can _smile! I didn't know if that was in your system!" Ralph remarked.

Immediately the smile vanished, and Surge shot an irritated glower at him.

"It's people like you that make my job so difficult that I don't smile often."

Ralph rolled his eyes.

"I only make it as difficult as you do! You stop me every time no matter what."

Surge mimicked his eye roll, before clicking his pen shut.

"I'm just doing my job; now then, as I've _been _saying, I'm busy right now; Wreck-It, Fix-It, Sargent, I bid you good night."

With that, he zipped off in a spark of blue electricity.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Surge Protector had to my second favorite character, behind King Candy/Turbo of course! So I thought I'd give him a little story of his own.

You know, he's quite possibly the most powerful being in the entire arcade! I mean, he has to protect **all **the games from power-outages and I think viruses too; I'm not too knowledgeable on what exactly a surge protector does in real life, but I assume he does all this in the WIR world as well. And I'm sure people were questioning his abilities after Turbo went...you know, turbo. So I'm sure there was a bit of mistrust after that for awhile, and then Sugar Rush happens...people were probably suspicious once again.

And yes, I had the twins and three racers from _RoadBlasters._ I couldn't write something without them; the twins I mean. I wish we'd gotten more about them, and Surge too. Oh well, with the possibility of a sequel (we **better**get a sequel, it's _**Disney**_ for cryin out loud!), I'm sure we'll get something next time!

Anyway, enough of my rambling, tell me what you think please!


End file.
